Monthly Archives: June 2015

There is a pub, a shop, petrol, holiday accommodation and a population of three hundred people.

There is national park further south but Southport is where the tarmac road runs out.

It is a beautiful place, overlooking the southern ocean, white sandy beaches, with mountains in the distance. But in various directions, the tarmac stops. There are dirt roads and walking tracks. In some instances, it is literally “the end of the road”.

I am having to learn a whole new geography and mental map. There are many places here that the early settlers named after their homeland in the UK. Here, Swansea is on at the east coast. Wiltshire and Somerset are on the north coast. In recent days, we have explored New Norfolk, via Richmond and Brighton. Today we drove to Southport, via Kingston, Waterloo, Dover and Hastings.

One subject that keeps appearing in my photos of recent months is mailboxes.

A new concept for me.

I’m used to the post being delivered into the house, through a letterbox in the front door.

Here, post is delivered to a mailbox at your front gate, if you live in the city.

As you drive out of town, single mailboxes are dotted along the road, at the end of a driveway. Sometimes you can see a house, sometimes not.

Further out into rural communities, a line of mailboxes stand at the junction of a side road. The mailman only covers the main road. In some places, mail is delivered to the local shop, not even to the end of your road.

Tassie mailboxes fascinate me. They are all different, unique, improvised or hand crafted. Most have a house number on them, one just stated the name and “plumber.”

Aussie Mate is very patient when I ask to abruptly stop the car so i can jump out and take photos. Fortunately we often have the road to ourselves and there are no cars following us.

In this age of technology, instant messaging, immediate contact and conversations across time and space, some of us still like to receive snail mail.

I’ve always enjoyed writing and sending postcards, so I’ve joined an online group – “post crossing”.

The website was set up by a Portuguese student in 2005 with a goal “to connect people across the world through postcards, independent of their location, age, gender, race or beliefs.”

The concept is “if you send a postcard, you will receive one back from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world”. It is not an exchange of postcards between people.

I am fortunate to have travelled, visited, experienced a number of countries. Postcrossing enables all members to travel vicariously, to learn about other countries, customs, lifestyles, flora, fauna.

I have sent cards to Europe, Russia, Belarus, USA, China, Taiwan. To a variety of people from students to grandparents. I’m receiving cards, a surprise in our mailbox, cards from India, Australia, Taiwan. Each card is given a unique ID and when received, the ID is logged on the website. You can message the sender. Members in Russia and China seem especially appreciative of the cards and a glimpse of another country.

The Postcrossing idea snowballed.

Today’s stats are ~
~ 557,753 members
~ from 213 countries
~ over 30 million postcards have been received
~ 437,941 postcards are currently traveling
~ The overall distance travelled by the 30 million postcards is 154 billion km,
the equivalent of 3.8 million laps around the world

Waterworks Reserve sits in the foot hills of Mount Wellington and gets its name from the two reservoirs that have collected water from the mountain since the 1860’s.

It is a popular spot for days out and family celebrations, with parkland, bush walks, playgrounds and the usual free barbecues.

At Waterworks Reserve there are specific sites, with shelters of various sizes, benches, tables, barbecue, tap water and bins, all with good views, that can be reserved for a set date and time. This is one of the smaller ones.

We left the car park and walked on the northern side of the upper reservoir. In winter some areas of the track don’t see sunlight, hidden in the valley. These sections felt dark and damp, with various types of moss growing on the trees and bushes. There was an abundance of fungi too.

As the track changed direction and ascended we found sunlight and flowers.

We came to the “Pipeline Track”, a path that follows water pipelines that have gathered water for Hobart since 1861. The pipes and technology give their own history – wooden and masonry troughs initially, earthenware pipes from 1871, cast iron pipes from 1901 and concrete pipes from 1917. We only walked part of the track but the pipeline was clearly visible in many places.

The track led uphill alongside the pipe, to a sandstone outcrop and a hand cut channel in the rock. “Gentle Annie Falls” is no longer a waterfall. The channel was created to direct water into the Waterworks Reservoirs but has been dry since water was re-directed in the 1940’s.

Back in the reserve, the “Receiving House”, a sandstone building from 1861, is now an information centre, showing the history of providing Hobart with clean water and also raising questions about water conservation and maintenance for the future.
~ less than 3% of the worlds water is fresh water, most is saline within the oceans
~ 75% of this fresh water is locked in the ice caps.
~ Aborigines had lived on this land for thousands of years. Yet when Europeans arrived, the water supply for the growing settlement, the Hobart Rivulet, was polluted and undrinkable within twenty years.

To end our lovely afternoon walk, koolaburras were flying about, sitting on the ground, in the trees and on posts.

I’ve been so busy enjoying my current gap year, that I have not looked back at my 1985 gap year for a while.

Back in June 1985 I had a holiday within a holiday, a break from nanny jobs in Wellington. So I headed back to Auckland.

I had a new home in Auckland. My friends had moved house while I’d been working. The new house was bigger, had a hot tub out on the deck. There were standards in Australian and New Zealand homes that we didn’t have in the UK, well not in houses I’d known. One idea was a separate laundry room, rather than having washing machines in the kitchen. Another idea was a rumpus room, a recreation room, kids room, party room, games room. Just an informal room to relax in.

Staying with these friends was my first experience of living with a dog. The only pet I’d had as a child was a blue budgie. Here, the family consisted of parents, two pre-teen boys, a boxer dog named Tess, a cat called Sparks, two goldfish and a duckling named Waddles. There was a big cage for the duck, but it spent most of the time following the boys around the house.

As with any new home, I got involved in stripping wallpaper and helping decorate. I minded the boys during their school holidays while both parents worked.

Another NZ concept that was new to me was a “bach” – a modest holiday home or beach house. My friends had a bach in Turangi near Lake Taupo. So we drove from Auckland with the usual gear plus food and bedding. I shared the back seat of the car with the two boys, the dog, sleeping bags and pillows.

My UK family don’t drink much, so staying with a wine enthusiast was enlightening. Although we had food supplies we stopped in Taupo at a “wine store” and stocked up with twenty bottles of wine. We had a few “ not – too – sober” evenings.

We stopped at a few places around Lake Taupo, including Waihi Maori village and Tokaanu thermal area, boiling springs, boiling mud pools and hot swimming pools.

The Wairakei Power Station collected power generated from natural steam coming out of the ground in a natural thermal region.

The Huka Falls on the Waikato River were amazing. The river averages one hundred meters in width but narrows to just fifteen meters creating a thundering waterfall and rapids.

We drove around the national park, with clear views of the three volcanoes, Mount Tongariro, Mount Ngauruhoe and the highest, Mount Ruapehu. There was snow on top of Ruapehu but just rocks at the lower level of the ski lifts and chalets. These are still active volcanoes and there have been spectacular eruptions in the past thirty years.

Back in Auckland I had a few days to explore the city, take the ferry, visit suburbs of Devonport and Parnell, galleries, craft and gift shops, bought a few souvenirs before travelling back to Wellington and another job.

Films that I watched during these months in NZ, some recent, some a few years old.
Passsage to India
Kramer vs Kramer
The Year of Living Dangerously

During our day out yesterday I challenged myself to get a photo for each colour. This is the result. I was struggling with violet until we stopped at a local farm shop on the way home. (There is a lot of blue, but it was a lovely winter day.)

The tide rolls in with regular monotony.
The oceans move in an invisible synchronisation with the Earth, Moon and Sun.
The waves tumble onto sandy beaches.
The waves crash against cliffs.
As time passes, the solid rocks are gradually eroded.
Caves form at the base of the cliffs.
The water continues it’s bombardment of the ground, creating rock arches.
As time passes, parts of the cliff collapse.
Deep vertical chasms are carved into the contours of the coastline.
The ocean cascades into low caves that join with vertical shafts, forming blowholes.
As time passes the world evolves.

Photos from our day trip to Tasmania’s East Coast around Eaglehawk Neck.

MONA is not just a museum or gallery. It was unique and innovative when it opened in 2011 ands continues to be world class.

Modern art is not really my thing. Aussie Mate appreciates the genre much more than me. However I enjoyed MONA for the art pieces that I did like and for the museum space, contemporary structure, original ideas and inventive method of providing detail and information on the art pieces.

The museum is located within the Moorilla Winery and is cut into a sandstone outcrop on the Derwent River. There are art works outside in the forecourt before you enter a single storey building which houses the ticket office, cafe and shop. The galleries are in three basement levels, a fascinating mix of rock walls, glass, concrete and metal walkways.

There are no labels on the walls. Each visitor is loaned an iPod style gadget that guides you through the galleries. The O button lists nearby artworks as you walk around, provides information as well as a “love” or “hate” voting option. It is fun to vote as you look at each piece, as “the O” then tells you how many other people agreed with you. The gadget tracks your tour of the museum, works that you have viewed and voted on. Your tour can be emailed to you at the end.

Here are a few of the works that I did “love”.

Cement Truck on a Flatbed Trailer – Wim Delvoye

Chapel – Wim Delvoye

Danser la Musique – Chen Zhen

This giant trampoline has bells attached which ring with each bounce. Fun for adults, not just the kids.

bit.fall – Julius Popp
water drops catch the light as they fall and spell out words and messages.

MONA is not for everyone. It’s focus is modern art with intended themes around sex and death. The brochure has a content warning stating “the museum contains artwork that some visitors may find confronting”.

It’s founder is David Walsh, a mathematician and professional gambler. He became an “art collector” in 1992 after casino winnings in South Africa could not be taken out of the country in cash, so he bought an item from a local gallery and brought it back to Australia. He has collected Roman and Egyptian antiquities but the majority of works are modern. MONA is the largest privately funded museum in the country and is behind DARK MOFO and other festivals of music and art in Hobart.

We did a short tour of the winery as well but that is a different story.

We’d read about it … 60 plus food and drink stalls … capacity for 10,000 inside a wharf shed and surrounding outside area … live music … street artists.

But we weren’t expecting this…….

There were no queues. We paid $10 entry fee and wandered in. Due to rain on this opening night, it was rather quiet outside. Inside was a total wonder. A multitude of stalls bordered the space, with long tables and benches filling the central area.

Live music added to the atmosphere and general buzz. We walked around, perused the various stalls, as we decided what we wanted to eat. There was so much choice, of produce, of cooking styles. Food and drinks were priced from $5 to $10 with a few full meal plates at $20. This made it easy to sample a variety of dishes. Between us, we had stag snags, wallaby burritos, scallop quesadillas, venison or rabbit pies and cheesecake desserts.

I started with a warm spiced cider, much nicer than traditional mulled wine and ideal for a cold rainy winter night. We did not try the oyster shooters – bloody mary shots with an oyster in the glass!

We found a gap on a bench so sat down to eat. The atmosphere was wonderful. Everyone chatted to their neighbours. We had a three generation family on one side of us, including a six week old baby who slept through the noise and music. Two “middle aged” couples enjoyed bottles of wine on our other side. They left and a young couple nabbed the bench space as they juggled plates and drinks.

When we’d finished our food, we wandered back outside as the rain had stopped. There were bands playing under marques, benches surrounding open fires and braziers. Food cooking on huge barbecues. People were eating outside and enjoying the entertainment and fire jugglers.

We had more drinks outside. I sampled a hot gin based tea infused with grapefruit and pepper berry. Delicious and warming. It was lovely to see so many people, kids to oldies, all enjoying themselves, all relaxed, no pushing or shoving despite the huge crowd. What an amazing experience and feast.

Two more impressive art works that are here in Hobart as part of the DARK MOFO winter festival.

Solid Light Works – by Anthony McCall

A dark boat travels up the River Derwent estuary each evening, with a pencil thin searchlight sweeping the shoreline. It looks good as the light creeps around the far shore, unfortunately my iPhone has not captured this.

Pulse Column – by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

8 searchlights point straight up into the sky. We’ve seen this from our apartment and various points in the city. Today, as we walked up close we understood the full effect of the installation. We joined a queue to take turns gripping two handles. The lights then pick up the individual’s pulse. It was fun to see the different pulse rhythms as people moved on. Kids pulses are much faster than adults.

Last August, as part of the UK’s commemoration of the First World War Centenary, London had a light installation by the Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda. “Spectra” consisted of 49 lights aimed straight up into the sky. The searchlight beam could be seen for miles. We visited this on a rainy evening, loving the effect up close as well as from a distance.

That particular installation was in Hobart for the first Dark Mofo festival in 2013.
Go Hobart !